SM Tip - Facts and Filmstrips

In planning a session on the patrol method that I’ll be teaching at the Philmont Training Center next week, I came across a gem: a YouTube version of a 1978 BSA filmstrip called “The Patrol Method.” Some Scouting history buff recorded the filmstrip and its cassette-tape narration (beeps and all) and posted it to YouTube several years back.

The funny thing is that I remember watching this filmstrip at Camp Tallaha sometime in the mid-1980s. (I was either a junior assistant Scoutmaster at the time or perhaps early in my tenure as an adult leader.) When I watched the filmstrip again the other day, I focused first on the nostalgia and the production’s almost laughable simplicity. But then I realized it’s one of the best illustrations of the Scoutmaster’s role in the patrol method that I’ve ever seen.

Watch the video and see if you don’t agree. Then, ask yourself whether you’d like to be more like Scoutmaster Ben or Scoutmaster Rob